After gaining stardom in Tollywood, Ram Charan has now forayed into Bollywood and he braved this by taking up a remake project. Did the mega powerstar show enough power? Let us see

Story
Vijay Khanna (Ram Charan) is an honest cop who keeps getting transferred to different districts and finally he is put in Mumbai. Meanwhile, Mala (Priyanka) is an NRI who comes to Mumbai to attend a wedding. She becomes witness to a murder and this brings her to Vijay. He gives her shelter in his home and the murder leads him to the Oil mafia baron Teja (Prakash Raj). A clash erupts between Vijay and Teja. In this, Vijay is helped by his friend Sher Khan (Srihari) and media person Jayadev (Tanikella Bharani). How things take shape forms the rest of the story.

Performances
Ram Charan’s body language was confident but his role was not etched as powerfully as it is done in the Tollywood films. The heroism element is missing. Still he did his best to create an impact.

Priyanka Chopra was a misfit. She was neither looking attractive nor was her performance appealing. She showed good energy levels but somehow it didn’t create the spark.

Srihari carried out his role as required and rolled out few punch lines in his style. Yet again, weak characterization failed to give that adrenalin rush to the audience.

Prakash Raj is the saving grace to the film. His antics and his versatility of expressions brought some life into the otherwise monotonous film.

Tanikella Bharani was elegant, Mahie Gill was sexy but trying to show a little of humor in her didn’t work. Ankur Bhatia was apt. Dayashankar Pandey was not used properly. Others hardly made a difference.

Highlights

Nothing to specify

Drawbacks

Dialogues

Weak direction

Poor screenplay

Outdated plot

Disturbing background score

Analysis
History has shown that south Indian superstars were never able to show the same charisma in Bollywood. Barring the exceptions of Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, the rest failed. So, it came as a surprise when Charan announced his Bollywood debut. At a time when he should aim for capturing Tollywood throne, his bravery to venture into Mumbai raised eyebrows.

Second- the choice of his project. This is a remake which had icons like Amitabh Bachchan and Pran along with Ajith doing the original. So, comparison is beyond comprehension. Despite all this, he took the plunge and as it deals with oil mafia, what has resulted is a total dip in an oil well with no chance of removing the stains. The film didn’t work for many reasons but if one has to point out the cause, it would go towards director Apoorva Lakhia. He was unable to exploit the potential of Charan, Priyanka properly and failed to create that juice in the script.

Any flop Telugu director can bring out much better product than this. The film tests the patience of the audience those move restlessly in theatres from beginning to the end. There is no single joke to laugh and audience feel stressful in searching a moment to laugh.

Since the plot was known it had to be laced with taut screenplay but the film was more like a rehash of the 80s tales. Romance was absent, humor was silly, technical values were not strong, dialogues were pale and generating the adrenalin rush required for an action packed treat was nil. The first half was routine and goes without an intensity and same with the second half. This turned out to be a dusty book in a neglected cupboard.

Overall, the film doesn’t deliver to expectations and ended up as a dud. Like Komarum Puli for Pawan Kalyan, this Thoofan stands as an unforgettable knockout blow in the career of Ram Charan.

Bottomline: This Thoofan cannot shake the box office

(Venkat can be reached at venkat@greatandhra.com or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)